Adventures in Cat-owning

So, a little over a week ago (the 16th), IV went outside (normal), and came back in about an hour (normal), with her left eye squinted shut (not normal). The next morning her eye was runny and her third eyelid was all red and inflammed. I took her to our vet and left her there for the day. When I picked her up, the vet gave me some anti-bacterial eye-goo stuff to put in her eye 3 times a day. So then, we are, at this point, now giving IV her Buspar (happy pills) 2 times a day, and putting Neobacimyx in her eye 3 times a day. (look, it's a pic of all the meds we've ever had to give IV...and it's missing the atropine--see below).

A week later (Wed, 22), IV's eye isn't any better. I set up an appointment with the vet to 1) get her eye looked at again, and 2) get a refill on her happy pills. We get there, they put some of the flourescence in her eye. She's actually got a scratch and not just a run of the mill infection. So we're given some more eye-goo stuff (Atropine) with the warning of "True story, If you get this stuff in your eye, it'll make your pupil dilate. If this happens, AND for whatever reason you freak out about it and go to the doctor, the doctor will freak out and think that there's got to be some reason for the dilation, and they'll probably want to do a C.T. scan. So, please, at that point, try to remember that you're putting this stuff in your cat's eye and THAT's what is making your pupil dilate." So then, we are, at this point, now giving IV her happy pills 2 times a day, putting anti-bacterial eye-goo in 2 times a day, and putting pupil-dilating-pain-relief eye-goo in 2 times a day (keep in mind that these 2 eye-goos cannot be put in the eye at the same time), AND giving her half of a children's asprin pill once every three days for general pain control. I believe I said to Ivers that night, "alright Ives, next time, let's try to make it so that Quazi is the cat that comes to the vet instead of you for once."

THEN (!!!) on Thursday night, I come home from work and Quazi is walking around the house, all sedated (NOT normal), and occasionally is picking up his left front paw. I try to look at it and he pulls away from me. Then I see that he's thrown up again (he had puked 2 times the night before)... And there's no food in it, which means that he hasn't eaten anything all day long. Shawn comes home and holds Quazi while I try to get a closer look at his paw. One claw, two claw, three claw, MEOWWWWW!

The Kitten is missing a freaking CLAW! Well, crap! The last time I had an animal that ripped a claw out he had to have bandages changed every day with soaking in anti-bacterial stuff and the cone (poor Zippy). And he had been taken to the vet 12 hours after the fact...not 24 as it was in this case (The only time Quazi would have had a chance to get his claw ripped out would have been the night before). So we make a run to the Emergency Vet office. An hour in, the vet tells us she feels a possible hernia in his abdomen. She goes to do an ultra sound and the lump kinda just disappears so she does an X-ray to see if she can see anything. The answer, not really, but this side of his abdominal wall looks a little suspect. He needs exploratory surgery, which is expensive and there's the possiblity that he's ripped his muscles from his pelvis in which case you need to do some crazy grafting proceedure. You can either do this NOW or you can take him to the regular vet first thing in the morning and get a second opinion. We decide on the second opinion. 2 hours after we first arrive we leave with X-rays, Amoxicillin, Buprinex (pain killers), instructions to see the regular vet in the morning because of a possible abdominal wall tear, and a sleeping kitten with a wet paw.

(pic of Quazi in a tree less than 2 weeks after the e-vet visit) I took Quazi to the regular vet this morning, they checked everything and found a puncture wound that the other vet didn't. This just happens to be filled with puss and on the side where the emergency vet felt the bump. It appears he had an abcess that was "popped," drained, and a little sore. After the 2 vets at the normal office took a look at the kitten and the X-rays they decide he was in a cat fight. Keep him on the Amoxicillin and the pain killers. Watch the toe and the puncture, if he isn't acting like himself in a few days, bring him back in. Take him back to the emergency vet if he doesn't poop or pee.

So now, our morning and evening schedules are as such:
IV: 2 eye-goos, happy pills...each 2 times a day
Quazi: pain meds and amoxicillin...each 2 times a day.

That's right ladies and gentlemen, a total of 10 doses of meds given out each day between 2 cats...sigh.